Monday, August 10, 2009

When I first started a blog, I was a little hesitant to tell my friends and family about it because I thought they may think I was a total loser (and I'm clearly still in middle school in my head so I worry about things like that). To get Eric on board with the whole idea, I told him that sometimes bloggers receive free samples of food or fitness products they want you to try out. He was totally sold on this idea, "what kinds of food?" "how do you get it?" he asked.

His interest means it's only fitting that my first free sample be a product that Eric was very excited about! I received an e-mail from the pom blogger asking if I would like to receive some samples of POM Wonderful. Eric has tried POM Wonderful before and loves it so he was very happy about the idea. To be honest, I have never been a juice person. Juice hurts my stomach now, but even when it did not I almost never drank it. I have never been a person to drink my calories, and I never liked juice enough to waste calories on it (clearly I do waste calories in other ways haha). I probably have not even had a sip of juice in 2 years. But of course I accepted the free sample anyways because I knew Eric would drink it, and I'd bring it to the Cape and my brother would drink it too.

Soon- in the mail I received a bunch of 8 oz containers of POM Wonderful and some information on what is healthy about Pom Wonderful.

The first thing I noticed was HOW wrong I was about "wasting" calories on juice. I am sure I was right about some juice, but NOT Pom Wonderful. It has been clinically tested to improve cardiovascular health and be an amazing source of antioxidants- better than red wine, grape juice, blueberry juice, cranberry juice, green tea and all those things I consider to be FILLED with antioxidants! Also, in a major bonus for Eric and my brother- it has been shown to improve prostate health and erectile function. While there are other brands of pomegranate juice, they are not all created equal and POM wonderful is the only brand guaranteed to have all of these health benefits.

While I'm not too sold on prostate health myself, I am a major sucker for antioxidants. I worry that I don't get enough of them since I never drink red wine, and fruits like blueberries hurt my stomach when I have more than a few. I knew I was going to have to figure out a way to drink this POM Wonderful even if it was in very small doses. Finally, thinking about how I always add a few blueberries or raspberries to my oatmeal in the morning, my mom came up with an idea. "What if you add some POM to your oatmeal in the morning before you cook it?" Ah ha! Great idea. And so I began.

I normally cover my oatmeal with water, so I almost covered it and then added about 4 oz. (half of the bottles) to my oatmeal. It looked a little like blood, but I don't judge a book by it's cover.

And then cooked it...

And then I added some apple slices.

Finally, it was time to eat it and the verdict is: DELICIOUS. The best way to describe it is oatmeal with a kick. It just adds this nice, subtle taste to the oatmeal that is a bit tart and really yummy. I am definitely planning to add POM Wonderful to my oatmeal in the future, which means I am going to have to buy some since Eric and Jake have almost completely polished off my free samples. If you have not tried POM Wonderful yet, I definitely think you should- even if you are "not a juice person." :)

Awesome idea! And I LOVE pom wonderful. I always drink a few swigs after a really hard workout (anything Jillian Michaels, especially). It would also be awesome in cocktails but I don't particularly like to drink my calories either :)

Wow, what a GREAT idea! Like you, I received the free POM samples, and I still have about 6 bottles in my fridge, ugh. I have been attempting to make things with the juice, but I have run out of good ideas. The oats idea is PERFECT! I add fruit to my oats, so why not add juice instead of milk!? LOVE IT!

I'm also not one to drink my calories but POM sounds really good. It's everywhere on the different blogs. Glad you found a juice that doesn't hurt your tummy and even kicked your oats a notch higher! :D